40 pounds of Snack Sticks this weekend

Can't wait to see those! Might have to try that when it cools off a little.

Bill,

How about a detailed recipe (what size plate for one) and PICS!!! Thanks!! Sounds GREAT.

Nurse, your're right, the temp is a constant struggle while grinding and stuffing. I think I'll grind and mix 20 pounds at a time, keep it in the fridge and stuff five pounds at a time as I only have a five pound stuffer. Oh, and bummer, the cube steak this time is not out of sirloin, but bottom round. it'll still be good!

And Mike, I use a 3/8 inch plate with the cubed steak. It's already chopped pretty good and the course plate is perfect. I only have a 3/16th beside which is way too fine. I need to purchace a 1/8th. I use the recipie off the hi mountain snack stick mix with thier mixes. It's dead on on what I want. Stuff's expensive though. The boxes cost 20.00 to process 20 pounds of meat. They do include collegen casings, which are in themselves quite expensive.

Bill,

THANKS!! I would for go the 1/8, I would go for a 1/4 and I use a 1/2 for my Andouille.

OK, here are some Pics. We ground all 40 LBS of the cube steak, but froze half for another day. We stuffed 20 LBS in casings, here's what they looked like in 21MM casings. The table is 48 inches long by the way.

Here they are in the FEC. They pretty much filled six racks. Cut them 21 inches long, with intentions of subdividing them later into seven inch sticks. 20 pounds of these were a good load. In at 180, then down to 170 for a long five hour smoke. At the end, boosted them up to 195 until internal of 160-65. Did a one to three and four to six rotation and spun all six racks at the three hour point. Tried to keep NO sausage by the top left hotspot.

They turned a beautiful burgandy color. The photo does not do it justice. Here they are laid out on a little 2x4 foot folding table. Finished product, ready to vacume seal. Beginning weight, 20 pounds of meat and two pounds of water and spices. Finished product right at 17 pounds.

Tried to take a close up here. I'm pretty proud of the FEC. She did well, for as hot as it was outside (90). I like low-smoking better in the winter.

We did finish them and the taste is wonderful. Very lean, very flavorful. Finished product Cost about 4.41 a pound according to my sifering. Cubesteak was 2.50 a pound. (x 20) Seasonings and case was right at 20 dollars, and one pack did 20 pounds. (although I got this one on sale for 10, i'm still figuring 20). About 4 pounds of pellets (if that) at 40 cents a pound, so right around 4.41 a pound or so. I'll vacume seal them in one pound packs and they'll go like hotcakes at work. here's an extreme closeup. Oh, by the way, used 100 percent hickory pellets from BBQ delight. I ordered about 20 bags of them with my last halfton order.

Those look spectacular Bill. Some of those pics look like a shot of a snack stick factory. Nice job.

Thanks for the PICS Bill!! They look GREAT. What stuffer do you use, I have a 10# 2 speed LEM vertical. Are the 21mm cases hard to stuff (i.e. do they take a lot of pressure)?

Mike, I have a Lem 5# vertical one speed stainless steel. It has no issues doing the 21mm casings. Keep in mind that I add about 2 to 4 ounces of water (or liquid) to each pound of meat on snack sticks. This helps a lot. I read the LEM reviews and most said they had no problems if they add water to the mix on the smaller casings.

One little trick I picked up somwhere is to staple the ends of the stuffed casings shit with a household stapler. This worked pretty good until I ran out of staples about half way thru and had to resort to butcher's twine. Here's a pic of the stuffer.

woops, forgot one last photo. I put up 15 generous one pound (probally a little over) vacuum sealed packs. Each pack contained between eight and nine seven-inch sticks. we had just under a pound of ends and pieces and probally consumed quite a bit in the process of 'cook's treating' ourselves.

Next time, I think I'll do a stick in the oven to compare with mine out of the FEC. My guess is the color and taste will not compare.

An interesting note, this is the third batch I've made of these in the last few months-two ten pound batches and this 20 pound ones. On the first batch, I had a cheap grinder (which I've since swapped), and due to my inexperience, I didn't realize sinue had rapped itself around the blade causing the meat to mush. I was also stuffing thru the grinder stuffing tube (prior to my stand-alone stuffer)at that time. Anyway, I ended up making emulsified snack sticks. Inside, they had the texture of hotdogs, but were still tasty, just different.

Here's the last closeup photo from this batch.